Fedor petrovich litke and his expeditions to novaya zemlya
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29 morning of the 6 th , it was to make the surprising discovery that one fluke of the iron anchor was cracked and badly bent, presumably from having been caught between rocks as the brig swung. Heading across to Kanin Nos, at noon on the 7 th Litke had the unusual experience of having both the Terskiy coast and the Kanin coast in sight at the same time although the distance between them is at least 80 miles (128 km). Following instructions, along with Zavashinin, Yefremov and Kharlov he made repeated observations; they all agreed that the longitude was 43°16′30″E from Greenwich. This was 7′20″ west from the previously determined longitude, a difference which Litke explained as being due to the fact that the earlier observations had been made at sea, just off the cape, rather than on shore. From there Litke headed south, still aiming to establish the position of Konyushin Nos. Fog delayed him for a day but on the 10 th he was able to establish the longitude of the mouth of the Torna River (44°17′E) and of the Kiya River (44°13′E). But the clouds then rolled in and heavy rain began; resigned to this situation Litke decided to forego persisting in trying to obtain the longitude of Konyushin Nos, especially since its longitude was almost identical to that of the mouth of the Kiya. He therefore started back north at 5 am on the 11 th ; taking his departure from Kanin Nos he headed straight north, in part to fulfil the item in his instructions about investigating ice conditions midway between Svalbard and Novaya Zemlya, and in part to avoid any ice off the southwest coast of Novaya Zemlya such as he had encountered in the past. At noon on the 12 th , at 69°N; 40°55′E to his amazement he encountered six ships. The captain of one of them, Captain Christers, of the brig Diana of London, came aboard Novaya Zemlya. It emerged that these vessels were bound for Arkhangel’sk but had been blown off course by southerly and easterly winds. Christers revealed that he thought he was 3° west from his actual position. On the 19 th Novaya Zemlya was surrounded by dense freezing fog; the rigging became iced up and the men had to pound the ice from the sails in order to handle them. Litke was expecting to encounter ice at any moment, but when the weather cleared on the morning of the 20 th
next morning the edge of the pack ice was in sight stretching from NW through N and E to SE. Litke now began to fight his way east, taking advantage of every lead and polynya, to try to reach the coast of Novaya Zemlya. Once he had emerged from the ice he was still hampered by fog; the coast was sighted briefly through the fog, about 40 km away around 2 pm on the 24 th .
Poluostrov Admiral’teystva; this meant that he was south of his dead-reckoning position by 32 km. The brig now headed north along the coast but at 10 pm on the 25 th the edge of the pack appeared again at about 75°30′N, extending from SSW to NE, where it abutted on the coast. The contrast with the situation in 1822 and 1823 could scarcely have been greater since here Litke had then encountered completely ice-free water. Clearly there was not the slightest hope of reaching Mys Nassau, and certainly not of continuing beyond it to Mys Zhelaniya. Accepting the inevitable Litke now pursued the goal of investigating ice conditions midway between Novaya Zemlya and Svalbard, i.e. along the longitude of 43°E. 56 Until the evening of the 30 th he tried to fight his way west and north but was repeatedly repulsed by impenetrable ice. He was finally faced with close ice, the floes rising some 2 metres out of the water, but with hummocks up to 20 m high, i.e. probably multi-year ice. This was at 76°5′N; 42°15′E, and by Litke’s estimate some 80 km closer to Svalbard than to Novaya Zemlya. There 56 ibid, p. 257. 30 was clearly no chance of penetrating further north and Litke now abandoned any further attempt. He now set a course for Kostin Shar, aiming to check his chronometers at a known location before swinging south to Ostrov Vaygach. But first he had to make a change in his rigging which had the unintentional result that he had to abandon one of his scientific programmes. He had to replace the main cross-trees which had broken because the topsail shrouds were too taut. The crosstrees had been fastened with copper, but the replacement was fastened with iron which meant that he could not continue his observations of the variation of the compass. As he headed east he soon again encountered impenetrable ice and had to swing south. For a week or more, hampered by frequent fogs he made repeated attempts to push east to the coast of Novaya Zemlya but was foiled by ice each time. It was not until 10 August that he encountered open water; by this time, however, he had abandoned any thought of further surveys of the south coast of Novaya Zemlya and headed straight for Ostrov Vaygach. His first sighting of it, on the morning of the 13 August, was its northwest coast, protected by a screen of small islands. He then worked his way north to the island’s northwestern tip at Voronov Nos. He determined the latitude of this conspicuous cape, 75–90 m high and crowned by a cairn or cross, to be 70°23′N (in fact 70°20′11″N). At this point the Kara Sea to the northward appeared to be totally free of ice. Lured by this promise Litke now headed west-northwest, threading his way through the labyrinth of reefs and islands such as Ostrov Chirachiy and Ostrov Oleniy ‘on which terrific breakers were crashing’. 57 But he had made barely 1.5 km when the ice edge loomed ahead, stretching unbroken from west to east. Since the wind had been steady from the west and southwest for the previous two weeks, it was clear that further north the east coast of Novaya Zemlya must still be solidly ice-bound, eliminating any chance of exploring it. Ever hopeful, however, he decided to stay in the area, tacking to and fro across Karskiye Vorota in case conditions improved. At noon on the 14 th about 12 miles west of Voronov Nos two karbasy were spotted, heading northwest from Ostrov Vaygach. On board these vessels, each about 9 m long and 2.2 m wide with a single square sail, were a dozen people, 11 Nentsi and two Russians, most of whom came aboard Novaya Zemlya for a couple of hours. They were heading for Novaya Zemlya to hunt. One of the Nentsi, Grigoriy Afanas’ev, who had been as far as Arkhangel’sk, was quite informative. He was even aware that Ivanov had visited Ostrov Vaygach, presumably having completed his surveys east from the Pechora. The anchor ropes of both vessels were in very poor condition and Litke gave them each some rope to replace them; they offered some walrus tusks in return but Litke refused them, stressing that the ropes were a gift. On the evening of the 17 th when Novaya Zemlya was tacking in the vicinity of Ostrov Britvin and later near the Ostrova Sakhaninskie the wind swung into the east and strengthened to a gale. Litke and his men were very relieved that they had not ventured north along the east coast of Novaya Zemlya, since this wind would almost certainly have trapped them between the ice and the shore. A clear sky at noon on the 19 th allowed Litke to establish the coordinates of Ostrov Bol’shoy Sakhanin as being 70°29′3″N; 53°30′E. Its actual position is 70°29′13.6″N; 55°20′28.7″E. In view of the easterly wind Litke now abandoned all hope of penetrating into the Kara Sea, and at 4 pm he set a course west to Ostrov Kolguyev. Light, variable winds slowed the brig’s progress and it did not come within sight of the island until the evening of 23 August. 57 ibid, p. 261. Yüklə 1,69 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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